The Senior Student (female) Is Not Human - Chapter 31

Chapter 31: The Bathtub

[77 Deep Water x2 Bonus Chapter] “From now on, every day…”

However, just as Jiang Xiyao was drawn in by the adorable bubble and was about to lean closer, she heard a very distinct sob.

Xie Shiwei covered her face with both hands. It was hard to tell if the color on the back of her hands was redder or the color of her cheeks peeking through her fingers.

Jiang Xiyao heard her weeping plea: “Please don’t, Sister…”

Extreme shame made her voice hoarse, as if she was about to pass out from the intense stimulation:

“I-I’m not hurt. P-Please, don’t look—”

Jiang Xiyao paused.

Even though she was told not to look, she had already seen everything.

Not only the cute little bubble but also the tender, baby-soft skin where the girl was hit, with a circle of pink emerging on the delicate skin.

Jiang Xiyao had seen quite a few humans over the years, but perhaps no one had ever aroused such a degree of exploratory desire in her, or perhaps most people she faced only turned a furious, purplish-red like pig liver.

In any case, she had never encountered a person who would turn pink all over at the slightest provocation.

Like a peach sprite.

When this description came to mind, she, who usually had little interest in human food, immediately recalled a type of soft peach called “Lake View” served at high-end restaurants during the season.

Just sitting there, it exuded an inviting sweetness. If you tore open the thin, cicada-wing-like skin, the ripe flesh—which faded from white to pink and then to crimson—would unexpectedly gush juice if you squeezed it slightly between your fingers.

Jiang Xiyao licked her lips, suddenly very curious.

If she inserted a straw into Xie Shiwei, just like eating that peach, could she directly drink sweet, clear, and tempting juice?

But Xie Shiwei was crying too hard.

It reminded her of the time the girl was so shy she fainted in the art studio, and the time she ran off to confess to Le Qiong without a care after being slightly pressured to sit on her lap and play the violin in the activity room’s music studio.

—She should wait a little longer.

Though she was usually impatient with her prey and preferred to violently rush human dark emotions to maturity, she somehow learned patience with this incredibly fragile, timid creature.

Jiang Xiyao reluctantly set the girl’s long legs down, unhappily retreated to the bed, pulled the girl back into her arms, took off the annoying black-rimmed glasses, cradled Xie Shiwei’s face, and leaned in again.

The sigh of relief Xie Shiwei had just taken turned into confusion as she lost her glasses and felt the slight, cool dampness return to her face.

“S-Sister…”

Jiang Xiyao matter-of-factly licked up all her tears, even lightly nibbling her cheekbone, and complained: “You won’t allow this, and you won’t allow that. Xie Shiwei, why are you so overbearing?”

Xie Shiwei couldn’t dodge her movements at all. Her tears were all snatched away before they even left the corner of her eyes.

She had no idea who was truly overbearing in this situation.

And soon, she was met with Jiang Xiyao’s disdain for being unable to cry again. The soft flesh on her cheek was pinched by a beautiful hand:

“You cry at the slightest thing, but you don’t cry for long. Xie Shiwei, are you the type who does it very often but finishes quickly every time?”

So weak.

Jiang Xiyao, who hadn’t even fully sated herself with the tears, was pouting due to her inability to be satisfied.

But Xie Shiwei was stunned.

…What did she mean, “does it very often but finishes quickly every time”? Was Sister calling her a fast woman?

No, no, no. What would Sister know about that? She was the same person who didn’t even understand other girls were pursuing her. Besides, when she bumped me just now, she was only simply checking if I was hurt.

Xie Shiwei struggled to pull back her indecent thoughts and answered softly:

“Because, crying for too long is exhausting? The body c-can’t handle it either.”

Usually, a little crying is enough when you’re scared or too emotional, right? Who cries all the time?

Jiang Xiyao gave a meaningful “Hmm” and suddenly asked: “How long is ‘enduring’ to you?”

Xie Shiwei felt like her mind was truly muddled after her glasses were removed.

Every word Sister spoke sounded suggestive to her ears.

She swallowed hard before speaking: “I… I haven’t kept track of time for that kind of thing.”

Who puts on a timer when they’re sad?

Jiang Xiyao smiled and said: “Oh. Then I’ll count for you next time.”

With that, she pressed Xie Shiwei into her arms, let out a long breath, and remained in that position, seemingly intending to sleep like this for the night.

When the chilly wind blew, Xie Shiwei remembered she hadn’t asked to put her clothes back on. But given Jiang Xiyao’s obstinate and difficult personality, she didn’t know if she got grumpy when woken up.

She could only meekly console herself: she had endured noise and light while living in the dorms; now she could just pretend she was camping outdoors and couldn’t find a blanket.

Xie Shiwei, who was very good at enduring hardship, soon fell into a daze in the tight embrace. However, in the latter half of the night, even though she tried hard to burrow into the embrace, she still felt cold.

Vaguely, she felt so cold that she was whimpering again, as the corner of her eye felt something being licked over and over.

Then, she was suddenly wrapped in a cluster of incredibly soft and delicate fabric.

Xie Shiwei suddenly wasn’t cold anymore. She even unconsciously rubbed her chin against the material of the blanket in her dream.

So soft and skin-friendly—

Did I dream about that legendary, expensive goose down comforter? she wondered sleepily.

In any case, when she woke up the next morning, Xie Shiwei thought she would surely catch a cold after sleeping without clothes or a blanket, but when her morning alarm woke her, she was surprisingly clear-headed.

She quickly silenced the alarm on the first vibration.

Carefully prying Jiang Xiyao’s arm away, Xie Shiwei tiptoed out of the room with her clothes and slippers.

She thought her movements were quiet, but she didn’t see the pitch-black, sleepless eyes of the person behind her snap open the moment she awoke.

Xie Shiwei left the house and habitually bought breakfast at the community gate. As she hung it on the handles of her scooter, she suddenly thought: What if Sister stays home all day? What about food? If she goes out, her fingerprint isn’t registered on the door.

Most importantly.

They hadn’t exchanged any contact information. What if Jiang Xiyao needed to reach her urgently?

In her urge to turn back home, despite being about to be late for class, Xie Shiwei tried to comfort herself that Sister Jiang was definitely not the type to let herself suffer.

Instead of worrying about Jiang Xiyao starving at home, she should worry about her restless nature. If she went out, she might bring back some random hangers-on, and the house might become a target for criminals…

Great.

She wanted to go back even more now.

Xie Shiwei rode to the school gate full of anxiety and almost bumped into someone.

“Aiy, aiy, aiy! I-I’m so sorr—Sister Le Qiong?!”

The apology on her lips turned into a cry of terror the moment she looked up.

Xie Shiwei was utterly shocked, staring at the figure in a white dress who had suddenly rushed into the scooter lane. As her soul almost flew out of her body, she suddenly remembered:

Wait a minute.

Didn’t the group chat say Sister Le was seriously injured yesterday and called for bl00d donations? And that her face was definitely ruined? Ruined what? She looks perfectly fine, even better than she did a few days ago!

Xie Shiwei quickly caught on.

Oh! Not only did the black-hearted hospital take Sister Jiang to harvest her organs, but they also lied to the students at school to get them to donate bl00d! They’re selling plasma! It’s simply monstrous and outrageous!

Just as she was internally criticizing her fellow students for being misled by rumors and spreading false information about the car accident, Le Qiong, who was pressed against her, stared directly at her: “Jiang Xiyao is with you, isn’t she?”

Xie Shiwei saw the bl00d vessels suddenly pop in Le Qiong’s eyes as she asked the question. She flinched back in fear and replied nervously: “W-What are you talking about? How is that possible?”

The rumor she refused to believe yesterday had become her best shield today.

Xie Shiwei asserted confidently: “Didn’t Sister Jiang die? Lots of people saw it!”

Le Qiong frantically gripped the front of her scooter: “She’s not dead at all! She disappeared from the morgue! Did you take her away? Is that it? You know her secret? You want to possess her, too? You want to become more beautiful, too, don’t you?”

…This is completely incomprehensible human speech now.

Xie Shiwei felt like she finally understood how Sister Le Qiong got her “face full of bl00d” yesterday.

She must have hit her head.

She heard that some image-conscious people would shave the hair from an injured area, get stitches, and then wear a wig despite everything for the sake of their appearance. Le Qiong was definitely the kind of person who would do that.

Xie Shiwei was afraid that any sudden movement would cause Le Qiong to fall and worsen her injury, which would then lead to her demanding exorbitant medical fees. So, she cautiously backed up her scooter while giving the security guard at the gate a look of distress.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I haven’t seen her, Sister Le. Please don’t misunderstand.”

Le Qiong stared intently at her, but whether she believed her or not, she quickly changed the subject:

“Then where’s the love letter you sent me? Where is it? Write me another one! Hurry!”

She wanted to get more, more of Jiang Xiyao’s skin. She wanted to become more beautiful and gorgeous!

Their struggle quickly attracted the attention of the security guard. He hurried over and shouted at Le Qiong, forbidding her from blocking the road. When she refused to move, he decisively grabbed a U-shaped steel pole and forked her to the side.

“Why are you blocking the road at the entrance when you should be in class? Didn’t you hear someone was hit at the East Gate yesterday? Get out of the way!”

At the same time, Xie Shiwei quickly turned the throttle and sped away.

She made it to class just in time. As the professional teacher mercilessly poured knowledge into her, Xie Shiwei hid her breakfast under the table, occasionally sneaking a bite while quickly taking notes.

During the break, her former dorm mates stood tentatively in front of her, pushing each other.

“Hey, Xie Shiwei, do you want to move back to the dorm?”

After the first person bravely spoke, the others also began to nod.

“Yeah, yeah. There are only four of us left in the six-person room. It’s kinda scary.”

“It wasn’t your fault before, right? Who knew You Jiayi was so crazy? She drove a car and hit people at the school gate yesterday. The school won’t let her off; they’ve already expelled her and are pressing charges for endangering public safety…”

“Your home is pretty far from school, isn’t it? We have first class at 8:00 a.m. a few days this semester. It’s too much trouble for you to come from there. Just move back to the dorm.”

They rattled on and on.

Xie Shiwei barely figured out that they thought a murderer had lived in the dorm, and they were afraid the feng shui was too evil. They wanted more people to move in to feel safer.

It was the first time someone had regarded her as a lucky charm who could fix feng shui. Xie Shiwei’s expression was complicated: “How did you all think of asking me to come back?”

Her dorm mate looked at her with determination: “During the camping trip, You Jiayi was so stubborn and unreasonable. You were the first person to stand up against her firmly. You can definitely restrain her! You can change the terrible energy she left behind!”

Ah, haha.

When it came to restraining, Xie Shiwei was all too familiar—

Is there a possibility that her jinxing ability wasn’t particularly choosy about the target?

Xie Shiwei adjusted her glasses and replied with a forced smile: “I’ll think about it.”

Maybe in the past, she would have been curious and wanted to prove that she wasn’t as terrible as she thought.

But now, thinking about the person waiting at home, Xie Shiwei was so worried about the person and the house that she genuinely had no time to care about fate or destiny.

After finishing class, clocking out her work-study hours at the counselor’s office, and completing her shift at the milk tea shop, Xie Shiwei was rushing home. But she happened to see Evian mineral water on the supermarket shelf.

Sister could eat out, but she needed water at home, right? Xie Shiwei looked at the 200 yuan that had just been deposited into her account, gritted her teeth, and went in to grab a case of the luxurious mineral water she never dared to look at.

Checkout deduction: -208 yuan.

Xie Shiwei, who had worked for half a day for nothing and even had to pay an extra eight yuan: “…Ugh! So expensive!”

Heartbroken, she loaded the case of glass-bottled mineral water onto her scooter. As she rode back, she suddenly saw a persistent white shadow getting closer in her rearview mirror.

Xie Shiwei: “!”

She gasped and turned back at the red light, only to realize it was the ever-present, inescapable Le Qiong!

Why is she like a female ghost?!

Fortunately, the light quickly turned green. She swiftly turned the throttle and sped away. She breathed a sigh of relief when Le Qiong disappeared into the traffic in her rearview mirror.

The next second, she saw her again, with bl00d on her face and her clothes grey and dirty, yet still persistently climbing up and chasing after her!

Xie Shiwei: “???”

She rode home at full throttle, pressed the elevator button frantically with the mineral water case, and even whispered a scream as she entered: “Aaaah, don’t follow me, ghost, aaaaaah—”

“Verification successful.”

The moment the fingerprint lock was opened, she stepped into… a luxurious, New Chinese-style living room.

Xie Shiwei’s terror turned into startled apology, and she instinctively stepped back: “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I got the wrong apartment!”

She backed up two steps, then felt confused. Wait, no? I opened it with my fingerprint, didn’t I? This is my house, right?

While she hesitated, a figure slowly walked out of the room: “Why aren’t you coming in?”

Seeing Jiang Xiyao in a gorgeous, blue qipao that perfectly blended with the environment, Xie Shiwei’s legs went weak. The mineral water case dropped and hit her foot, and tears instantly streamed out:

“I didn’t! I told you not to bring people into the house, wuwuwu…”

Jiang Xiyao blinked: “I called a team for the renovation. I contacted them by phone, and I didn’t let them see me.”

She paused and added: “I asked you yesterday if I could change the decor. You didn’t say anything, so didn’t you tacitly agree? I put the original broken… furniture in a rented warehouse outside. I didn’t throw anything away.”

The beauty, who always did everything with righteous confidence, walked up to Xie Shiwei when she saw her devastated, wronged expression, cradled her face, and sighed as she leaned in to kiss her tears:

“You love to cry so much, Xie Shiwei.”

That tiny bit of guilt immediately turned into pleasure as she tasted the girl’s tears.

Jiang Xiyao asked enthusiastically: “Do you plan to feed me with your tears every day from now on?”

Xie Shiwei felt a little embarrassed when she realized Jiang Xiyao hadn’t let the home renovation team see her incredibly alluring face.

Hearing that she had even rented a warehouse specifically for the cheap, durable, but ugly furniture her grandparents had bought for frugality, Xie Shiwei felt a little like she was being condemned.

Until the last, highly ambiguous demand—

Her tears stopped in terror.

Jiang Xiyao gave an unhappy “Tsk” and then glanced at the heavy object beside her.

Her smile didn’t prevent her from speaking sharply: “What kind of little trash did you bring back from outside?”

Xie Shiwei stared at her in shock.

The Evian mineral water, which she had bought with a significant amount of money—half a day’s work-study wages—specifically for this fussy person, and which was the exclusive enjoyment of the rich, was classified as “little trash”?!

But she quickly realized that the mineral water Jiang Xiyao drank cost five digits per bottle. This kind of water, which could still appear in the world of the common people and be seen on supermarket shelves, indeed wouldn’t catch her eye.

So, Xie Shiwei was briefly angry, then gave up with a “life’s over anyway” look of resignation:

“Nothing. I was just stressed out from school and suddenly wanted to spend some money.”

She then asked Jiang Xiyao softly: “How long do you plan to hide out here, Sister?”

Jiang Xiyao realized she had said the wrong thing when she saw Xie Shiwei’s shocked expression.

…Could this case of mineral water have been bought specifically for her by the little custard bun?

Before she could quickly salvage the situation, she heard the direct and rather impolite request to leave.

Jiang Xiyao’s face fell.

Her cold, dark eyes were deep, as if they could swallow all light.

Just as the girl, nervous and pursing her lips, tried to shrink her head away from her palm, Jiang Xiyao suppressed her displeasure. Instead, she smiled and spoke softly:

“Did something happen? Why are you chasing me away the moment you get back?”

Xie Shiwei had a ready-made reason.

Thinking of Le Qiong, who seemed to have developed crash-resistant body and looked like a ghost on the road earlier, her body went weak again, and tears welled up in her eyes.

After stammering out the story of Le Qiong persistently chasing her out of jealousy toward Jiang Xiyao, Xie Shiwei cried and asked her: “Sister, can you please just let me go?”

Jiang Xiyao laughed.

She touched Xie Shiwei’s nose with her own, her voice incredibly intimate.

It sounded more like doting than blame:

“Xie Shiwei. You were the one who said you wanted to send her a love letter. Can you blame me for that, too?”

The girl, however, glared at her with red eyes through her glasses:

“The love letter was also written because I was threatened by your admirer! If, if I wasn’t so scared, I wouldn’t have written it!”

So that’s what happened—

Jiang Xiyao let out an enlightened “Oh.”

Then, as Xie Shiwei continued to stare at her with a newfound courage, she suddenly picked up the girl, who was still sitting by the door, and walked toward the bathroom.

“You just came back from outside. You’re dirty. Why don’t you take a bath? I had someone design a small bathtub.”

Jiang Xiyao selectively ignored the question of when she would move out.

…

The person who was tired, angry, and wronged eventually fell asleep, unconsciously draped over the side of the tub, thanks to the unexpectedly comfortable experience of the first-time bath. A piece of paper, thin as a cicada’s wing, blew in through the crack of the door, moving without a breeze.

The paper landed on the floor and blossomed into a willowy beauty.

Jiang Xiyao draped herself over the wooden steps by the tub. Her black hair, like a tassel, flowed and floated on the water’s surface, like seaweed.

The beauty was face-to-face with her. She reached out and traced her fingertip over Xie Shiwei’s nose. Her red lips opened and closed, silently cursing:

“You little thing with no heart.”

Before, you were willing to use your inner voice to trick me, saying you liked me. Now, you despise me even when you see me. The moment you open your eyes, you’re chasing me away!

Thinking of the girl’s unconscious tone of complaint when mentioning the danger, Jiang Xiyao looked at the wrist resting on the edge of the tub. The sparse string of Buddha beads on it was still smooth and round, even soaked in water.

She fiercely held another grudge against Xie Shiwei in her heart.

She insists on wearing this junk to block my abilities, and now she blames me when she encounters danger—

Jiang Xiyao gently gnashed her teeth. Looking at this wretched thing that had made Xie Shiwei lose interest in her since its appearance, her crimson-colored fingertip reached out dangerously.

The moment the Buddha beads defensively emitted a golden light, Jiang Xiyao paused again.

She remembered the custard bun’s habit of treasuring all broken things. If she found this piece of junk broken, she would surely cry again and probably find a new one somewhere.

So, her eyes shifted.

The palm that was about to rip off the Buddha beads suddenly opened and firmly grasped the wrist that the beads were guarding.

“Sizz…”

A violent sizzling sound, like raw meat searing on a hot plate, subtly filled the quiet bathroom.

Jiang Xiyao could even feel the layers of her own palm skin repeatedly melting, covering the beads one layer at a time, completely enveloping the Buddha beads.

She narrowed her eyes in delight. Amidst the melodious “sizzling,” she looked at the sleeping Xie Shiwei and spoke again:

“Mine.”

Xie Shiwei was hers—

So she should only rely on her wholeheartedly.